A clinicopathologic study of 196 intraoral minor salivary gland tumours

We present a retrospective study of 196 patients with intraoral minor saliv ary gland tumours, 128 malignant and 68 benign, diagnosed from 1954 to 1993 in the A. C. Camargo Hospital, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Sixty-five percent of th e cases occurred in the palate, followed by tongue (9.7%) and retromolar ar ea (6.1%). Pleomorphic adenoma was the most common benign tumour, and mucoe pidermoid carcinoma was predominant among the malignant tumours. Surgery wa s the main treatment method and postoperative radiotherapy and radiotherapy alone were used in 40 and 15 patients, respectively. Local recurrence was observed in two patients with pleomorphic adenoma and in eight patients wit h malignant tumours. Regional lymph node metastases occurred in four cases and distant metastases in five. Forty-six of 47 patients with benign tumour s who were followed up from 1 to 7 years were alive without disease. Twenty -four of 79 patients with malignant tumours who were followed up for at lea st 5 years died due the tumour and 47 were alive without disease.